Occupants sleeping within a vehicle, in particular young children, may be startled when a vehicle door is opened and the overhead courtesy lamps shine into their eyes. This is particularly true when it is dark outside and the occupant is sleeping. Prior technologies allowed a driver to disable all courtesy lamps in a vehicle interior with an instrument panel mounted switch, or to disable a single courtesy lamp with a lamp mounted switch. When all courtesy lamps are disabled, the interior of the vehicle is dark when the door is opened making it difficult for a person to collect belongings, to see clearly to exit, and to remove the sleeping occupant from the vehicle, for example, from a car seat. Further, disabling a courtesy lamp using a lamp mounted switch is difficult for the driver if the lamp is in the second or third row of the vehicle. Additionally, the cost of adding such switches to all overhead courtesy lamps is prohibitive on vehicles with multiple overhead lamps.